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130 August2019nstereophile.com1330Au0gA0st029tu2er2o2e2phoilte2.c2Apmmm
Cg3g0ncAutions together and then yap about the
sound. How the new thing enhanced
the music. How it didn’t. How it made
you feel. You’d be surprised what you
can learn about audio and your own
audio values by listening to others
speak of theirs.
Keep your mind and ears open.
More importantly, listen to your heart,
since that’s where the real messageregisters. That’s how you’ll become the
audio hobbyist you were meant to be.
This won’t be an overnight process. It
takes time to grow into our audio per-
sona and to realize where in Audioland
we fit. Analog? Streaming? Solid-state?
Vintage? Electrostatic headphones?
That’s the beauty of our hobby: It’s
vast and layered and has a warm place
for each of us where we can feel free
and be ourselves.
A final piece of advice—but for this
to work, you’ll need to perform a faith-
based mental trick. Imagine that your
own audiophile Me Of The Future,
from 30 years up that road of amassed
personal experience, has come to visit
the you of today. Imagine that your
more seasoned self grabs you comfort-
ingly by the shoulders, tells you that
everything will be okay, then delivers
the overarching principle you should
follow to bring you audio happiness.
Listening to your heart, what do you
think you told yourself? nD
ear Audio Newbie:
Welcome to the wonderful world of hi-fi! If you’re besotted with a
desire for audio gear that can make your recorded music sound better
than you’ve ever heard it, you’ve come to the right place.
And at just the right time: Not only is there an unprecedented amount of
sanely priced, excellent-sounding audio gear on the market; there’s this thing
happening between us right here and now—the fact that you’re reading a letter I
wrote especially for you. It’s a serendipitous concurrence, because when I think
back to when I was a tenderfoot, I wish I’d had a mentor—or, better yet, The Me
Of The Future—to prep me mentally for the big trip into Audioland.So, in hopes of handing the decades’
worth of knowledge I’ve accrued to a
new generation, I offer this incomplete
list of tried-and-true suggestions—
starting with:
Don’t sweat that whole “absolute
sound” business. I don’t mean this pejo-
ratively. It’s just that trying to replicate
the real thing in a home environment
seemed a more sensible goal when
audio in general sounded nowhere near
the real thing. It gave us all something
to shoot for while providing a means of
keeping tabs on our progress. But the
ideal we seek defies absolutes. What,
precisely, constitutes the real thing
when so many sonic variables are at
play in the performing and recording of
any piece of music? It’s best, as a rule,
to focus less on absolutes and more on
ensuring that your next purchase con-
nects you to the music more than the
product it replaces.
This next tip may strike you as
counterintuitive: Spend more than is
comfortable on your next upgrade.
Not too much—personal bankruptcy
is no recipe for audiophile bliss—but
stretch a little to get something better.
Sell the superfluous exercise equip-
ment in the basement. Use credit
if you have to. We audiophiles will
repeatedly, throughout our lives, beat
ourselves up wondering if we spent
too much for a hamburger with a
frilled toothpick in it, or a pair of
boutique jeans, or a gift for our spouse.
But we will never feel like we spent
too much for an audio component
that is a constant source of joy. It can’t
happen.
Speaking of money, don’t worry that
you don’t have as much as the next au-diophile. I say this unequivocally: Like
music itself, there’s enough audio gear
to experiment with over the course
of two lifetimes. Sure, you’ll hunger
for gear you can’t afford, but there’s
excellent equipment for almost every
budget, and while pricier stuff tends to
be meaningfully better, often the differ-
ence isn’t as big as you’d think.
Ultimately, what drives us is our
hunger for better sound. It dwells
in our subconscious like the pounc-
ing instinct of a rapacious wolf—and
here, dear neophyte, is the gist of it.
Regardless of our respective net worth,
there are always one or two audiophile
products we hunger for. No amount of
money will satisfy that hunger.
This next one, too, may seem off-
putting, considering the private nature
of our hobby: Try to mix and mingle
with other hobbyists. Attend audio
shows, crash audio-society meetings,
swap gear with fellow enthusiasts so
you can listen to different combina-Notes to a New Audiophile
THIS ISSUE:ContributorRobertSchryer
offerssomedecidedlynon-puritanical
advicetotheaudionewbie.BY ROBERT SCHRYER